KY 248 East to KY 555 South - the Heartland Parkway

On several occasions in the past I've taken people (my mom, friends) on the evolving highway known as KY 248. I may have written of this before. KY 248 used to begin as a very narrow two-lane highway jutting to the north off US 62 just west of Anderson County's Western Elementary, a few miles east of the old community of Sparrow. From there it continued north in a zigzagging way past the New Liberty Baptist Church. As one proceded north, and then west toward Taylorsville, along the northern edge of Taylorsville Lake, the road widened first to a full-fledged two-lane road, then even wider, ultimately as a very wide four lane divided highway with wide shoulders, left turn lanes, and emergency lanes. The road joins KY 44 West and proceeds into Taylorsville at the Spencer County High School.

For several years, the State Transportation Department has been planning a fill-in road, filling in the gap just south of where KY 248 begins, down to where KY 555 ends, previously just north of the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. Over the past several years, I've watched the road develop off to the south edge of US 62 in the area sometimes called Love Ridge, near where the Nelson, Anderson, and Washington county lines meet. This morning, trekking out and about, I found that the new parkway is completed between the two points. South of US 62 it is known as KY 555, while north of US 62 it retains the KY 248 name.

This new road provides a second route from Louisville to Springfield, should anyone want to go. Previously, getting to Springfield (or further, say to Lebanon or Campbellsville and Green River Lake) from Louisville required first getting to Bardstown (probably taking I-65 to KY 245), then following US 150 over to Springfield. Now there is an alternate route through Kentucky's Heartland. This would be getting almost to Taylorsville first (probably along KY 155), then turning east on KY 248. Having made the turn at the Spencer County High School, one could conceivably never make another turn on to another road and end up at Lake Cumberland State Park, by following KY 248 to KY 555, which then becomes KY 55, which after passing through Springfield, Lebanon, and Campbellsville, eventually makes it way to Jamestown - well, just west of Jamestown - at its intersection with US 127. I was so excited about the prospect of taking a different route to Cumberland Lake, that I mentioned all of this to my mother while I was there to cut grass today.

Concerned, she asked me if I had been to Jamestown this morning. Truthfully, I would have liked to have answered yes, but, again, truthfully, I could only claim to have gotten as far from Louisville as the Willisburg exit of the BG Parkway (at KY 555) before turning back.

But the trip wasn't for naught. I stopped by several cemeteries on today's trip - all of which I had visited before. I started in Jefferson County at Rest Haven where I visited the burial site of Dottie Priddy who passed away a few weeks ago. While there, I also visited my friend Rob's grave. From there they were the Little Union Cemetery on Little Union Road in Spencer County, Saint Michael's Church cemetery straddling the Spencer-Nelson county line on KY 48, the Fairfield Cemetery further along on the same road, the Maple Grove - Bloomfield Cemetery just north of Bloomfield on KY 55, where Clark Hockensmith, who was one of Quantrell's Raiders during the Civil War, is supposed to have been buried after being killed over in Wakefield (I've never found Clark's grave, but I do continue to look), and the old Bethlehem Church cemetery within the confines of the Taylorsville Lake Wildlife Management Area on Old Briar Ridge Road in Spencer County. Lots of similar family names in all of these, but no one in my family tree that I recognized. But, I always look, and sometimes I find.

It was a nice Sunday drive. Given that, I do not have a report of today's lectionary readings. Today's readings were names and dates, births and deaths.

Have a good week.